CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin and Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz sparred in an interview with CNN on Wednesday as Toobin accused Dershowitz of “carrying water” for President Trump.
The attack was prompted after Trump used comments from Dershowitz to back up his opposition to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and if the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
Dershowitz had said Mueller had “no probable cause” for collusion to launch the investigation and said that Trump was right to challenge Mueller.
“How has this come about that in every situation over the past year you have been carrying water for Donald Trump?” Toobin asked Dershowitz on Wednesday during an appearance with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “This is not who you used to be. And you are doing this over and over again in situations that are just obviously ripe with conflict of interest. And it’s just, like, what’s happened with you?”
Dershowitz, who previously was Toobin’s law professor, refuted Toobin’s comments.
“I have attacked President Trump for many, many things. I’m not carrying his water. I’m saying exactly the same thing I’ve said for 50 years,” Dershowitz said in response.
“And, Jeffrey, you ought to know that,” he noted. “You were my student.”
Although Dershowitz maintained it was a mistake to appoint a special counsel, he also reasoned that Trump firing Mueller now would be a “terrible mistake.”
“This is not who you used to be … what’s happened to you?” CNN’s @JeffreyToobin accuses friend and mentor @AlanDersh of “carrying water” for President Trump pic.twitter.com/FQXiw2pym0
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) March 22, 2018
Trump has long called Mueller’s investigation a “witch hunt,” and over the weekend accused the inquiry of being unfair. “Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans? Another Dem recently added…does anyone think this is fair? And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!” he said in one tweet.
The White House has maintained that there have not been talks about firing Mueller, even though the probe has drawn the ire of Trump.
“There are no conversations or discussions about removing Mr. Mueller,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters Monday.
